If you or someone you love may be suffering from a problem with anxiety, it’s important to be able to recognize the symptoms of anxiety. People have often asked this question and wondered how to spot the symptoms for themselves. Learning the signs is your first step towards a treatment.

Too often people suffer from anxiety and they aren’t aware of the problem. They may feel ashamed to tell anyone what they are going through and they fail to realize that thousands of other people are going through the exact same thing. This feeds the anxiety so a person can end up with a panic attack just because of the thought of another anxiety attack. This is a problem that continues again and again.

Knowing about the problem is important to help you recognize it and treat it. There are quite a few different symptoms that can manifest themselves through anxiety but the official measurement scheme used by the medical community is called DSM-IV. This system says you are having an anxiety or panic attack if you have four or more of these following symptoms:

· Fear of dying

· Strange warping of reality

· Sounds are not normal; blurry vision

· Increase in heart rate

· Increase in breathing; deep breathing

· Chest pain or uncomfortable feeling

· Nausea

· Tingling sensation or numb sensations

· Fear that you are going crazy

· Fear of no control of yourself

· Lack or breath or feeling that you are being smothered

If you have four or more of these symptoms or recall having them at the last time you felt you might have had an anxiety attack, chances are you did. Since these feelings can be very scary, you associate them with what you’re doing at the time and the symptoms can return each time you face that situation again. Returning to times, places or situations that created anxiety for you in the past can bring those feelings of panic back again.

This can be a very frightening and overwhelming experience. You may feel like you have no control over what is happening to you and this just increases the fear and panic. When you understand how the body reacts to danger or death, you will know why this happens.

The brains pumps blood to muscles to prepare us to fight or run. Since it is a defense mechanism, our bodies automatically tell us to do this. It’s hard-wired into our brains and we continue to react this way today.

If you have symptoms of anxiety, you need to talk to your doctor about your treatment options. If anxiety or panic attacks prevent you from enjoying the things you once did or from having a normal life, you should seek to make changes in your life to prevent this.